Impression Evaluation Focusing on the End-of-Sentence Style of Utterance in Driving Support Agent Based on Politeness Theory

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an agent which selects utterance strategy according to driver’s attributes and situation based on politeness theory. The proposed agent system considers attribute information such as age, gender, personality, driving experience and driving characteristics of the driver, and selects and supports highly receptive utterance strategies. Here, as a survey for the development of the proposed system, an impression evaluation experiment on a driving support agent was conducted using a moving picture reflecting driving support scenes. In particular, we focused attention on the difference of the end-of-sentence style which is a representation method of distinctive psychological distances in Japanese conversation. As a result of the experiment, it is suggested that agents using non-polite words may be effective for improving familiarity. On the other hand, the agent using honorifics gives the impression that it is cautious, suggesting the possibility that it feels that information is conveyed accurately.